Dive Brief:

• Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders is calling for Indian Point, the controversial nuclear plant near New York City, to be closed down over safety concerns, just weeks ahead of the state's Democratic primary, NBC News reports. 
• Sanders will face fellow candidate Hillary Clinton, who has been critical of the plant but has called for making it safer rather than closing it down entirely.
• Sanders is the only presidential candidate calling for an end to nuclear power; he wants the United States to grow its renewable resources like wind and solar instead.

Dive Insight:

Entergy's Indian Point nuclear facility has become an issue in the Presidential race, with Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders saying the plant is too near New York City to be safely operated.

"I am very concerned that the Indian Power nuclear power reactor is more than ever before a catastrophe waiting to happen," Sanders said in a statement issued yesterday. "In my view, we cannot sit idly by and hope that the unthinkable will never happen. We must take action to shut this plant down in a safe and responsible way. It makes no sense to me to continue to operate a decaying nuclear reactor within 25 miles of New York City where nearly 10 million people live."

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) has pushed to shutter the facility over safety concerns, and in February called for an investigation into the plant after monitoring weeks showed it was leaking contaminated water. Entergy has maintained the plant is safe and the power is essential to the region.

But while Cuomo supports Entergy's continued operation of other nuclear units in the state, Sanders has established himself as the only candidate calling for the United States to move entirely away from nuclear power.

"Even in a perfect world where energy companies didn't make mistakes, nuclear power is and always has been a dangerous idea because there is no good way to store nuclear waste," he said in his statement. "That is why the United States must lead the world in transforming our energy system away from nuclear power and fossil fuels."

Sanders will face Hillary Clinton in the New York Democratic primary later this month. Clinton, who lives less than 20 miles from the plant, has been critical of the facility but does not want to see it shut down and instead has called for improving operations at the facility.